Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Lauren Likes // Liverpool, Manchester & Macca!

Hey amigos, Lola & James here today.

Oh my gosh, what a blooming lovely time we've had this week - best Christmas ever! As we showed you yesterday, we woke up to lots and lots of treats from Santa before hosting our very first Twee Towers Christmas breakfast for our families and then heading off to our parents' houses for more delicious food and amazing presents! We were actually a little overwhelmed with how spoiled we were... James had spent so much time creating my Christmas presents and gave me three incredible portraits of Jane Birkin,France Gall & Martin Freeman (guilty pleasure) as well a necklace. I also received the Atlas tapestry throw that I had been after for SO long, my Marc Jacobs perfume, Benefit makeup a stack of penguin clothbound books, a new moleskine journal, the sweetest tea set, a Birkin & Gainsbourg 7" & a Thomas Burke 1st edition (ahhh!) book of poetry from 1920 complete with hand drawn illustration & chevron print cover - my parents, brother & boyfriend really are the best!

As well as all that, on Monday last week James & I headed up to a Liverpool apartment for two nights and threw in a quick trip to Manchester to see Paul McCartney!! Oh my word, such a bewildering and surreal experience - even the second time round - but the most magical gig of our lives and the most wonderful few days ever...

The four hour train journey was a little tiresome to say the least so we passed the time drawing and posing. Standard.

The MEN arena starting to fill up - mix of nerves, adrenaline and excitement!

McCartney - still loyal to his Hofner violin bass!

Give peace a chance!

We were over the moon with the seats - we had a perfect view of the stage and we even got a glimpse of Macca preparing to walk on to the stage. We definitely DID NOT cry as soon as he came on. Opening with Magical Mystery Tour, Macca sang and played his way through many hits as well as the more obscure Beatles & Wings tracks... some of which The Beatles hadn't even performed on a live stage, A Day in the Life, Drive My Car & Eleanor Rigby to name a few. The setlist didn't lull in anyway, not that you'd expect it to, Paul, being one of the seminal writers of the last 50 years.

The first highlight for us was the moment when the auditorium was reduced to silence as McCartney graced the stage alone with his guitar to sing 'Blackbird'. It's always been my personal favourite but even we were overwhelmed to see 21,000 mesmerised people. Not a dry eye in the house. James was happy to see that there were 'pyromaniacs' (... or pyrotechnics to the heightened IQ) during Live and Let Die. We're not even sure how the use of explosives, fireworks and huge flames of fire was allowed inside an arena but it looked flipping cool.

Another highlight was Macca playing 'The Word' as the opener to the encore (which also included A Wonderful Christmas time... yesss!) Only the second time that he played it live during his career since the Beatles.

Defintely the best gig we have ever been to, Sir Paul is a living legend.

In honour of Macca, we headed back to Liverpool for a quick Beatles pilgrimage, starting on Mathew St.

Drinks at the Cavern.

The original entrance to the Cavern.

For Rhi - Ringo & I!

Love this picture - Helter Skelter in Liverpool's Winter Wonderland.

We walked down to the docks for a browse around the museums and galleries.

A nonchalent pose outside the Tate.

A Francis Bacon painting and a Barbara Hepworth sculpture (I drew that for GSCE art!)

Always amazing to take a closer look at Dali masterpieces. As much as I love the film factory girl, I had never been too fussed about Andy Warhol's work, but we were both a bit taken aback looking at his well as his pre-factory illustrations - we were also interested to learn that he worked as an illustrator for Glamour and Harper's Bazaar before de-constructing consumerism through the art of screen printing!

... a subtle hint that it was time for a break.

All in all, from the build up of the gig to the close of our Liverpool trip we had the most wonderful time of our lives... thus far!

Hope you've all had a fab Christmas and are still enjoying the Festive break!

For Some reason, I didn't want your post to end! I wanted to keep reading all about your trip. It also seems to me that you got a a lot of amazing, useful stuff! I love leather skin journals. I am glad for this post. Can;t wait to read more from you and James!

Wonderful trip!I lived in UK for almost 2 years and never ever went to visit Liverpool, I know I missed a good one! I used to visit Manchester like a lot, and loved it, have a lot of good times memories!

wow that must have been something seeing him in concert! i am such a huge beatles fan...have visited paul's house in liverpool too :-) next time you're up manchester way shoot me an email and we can meet for a coffee! <3 xx